Best Screen Resolution for 15" Widescreen?

Hello People,

I wonder if I can get some advice here about the best screen resolution for a 15" widescreen laptop.

I need to buy a new machine and I'm going for a Dell D830 Latitude. I'm in the main a business user although I do like the odd flight simulation to play around with in my spare time.

Now I've never used a widescreen job before as all my machines to date have been the conventional 4:3 ration and after Googling around I'm somewhat confused about the widescreen resolutions and I'm not sure what would be best for me.

I do use reading glasses for viewing so I guess my eyesight is as good as it can be from that point of view, but even so with xga on a conventional screen I can struggle to read text on some websites.

As for widescreen I'm thinking wuxga @ 1900 x 1200 would be far too small for reading text on a 15" screen, although probably very good for gamers...so now my mind says either wsxga+ or wsxga are the better options.

So from the point of view of 'general' viewing of web pages would wsxga be the one to go for if I can get it?

Thanks in anticipation.

Colin

 

I would go for at least WXGA+ (1440x900, aka WSXGA) on a 15". anything less than that is just too big and doesn't give enough real estate. Also, when choosing a resolution do keep in mind whether your GPU will be able to handle the game at the specific resolution, as it has to render more pixels as resolution increases.

 

1280x800 would probably be a good resolution for you. If you think of it this way, it's only a 15" screen. Monitors you'd find on a market that're 17"-19" typically have a 1440x900 resolution. Then, you'd find 20"-23" with a 1680x1050. Are you used to working on a monitor? What size and resolution?

 

Thanks for the replies chaps.

Actualy no, I'm not used to using normal monitors.

At home I've always chosen to use a portable machine mainly for space saving reasons and a convenient way of closing it up to keep my kids away from it...they're more interested in gaming consoles anyway.

The company I work for is a small consultancy oufit (just five of us) and ever since I've been there everyones had their own laptop to work with...normal desktops don't exist as far as the company are concerned. The stuff we currently use are aging Inspirons and Latitudes all 4:3 ratio and they really need to be updated...but I suspect the company has some form of extended warranty deal with Dell on the machines and they won't upgrade untill that comes to the bitter end.

So for me I'm very much laptop orientated...I've never used a desktop.

I just been out to do a bit of shopping and took a look in my local computer retail outlet...not a big place...but they had a few 15" widescreen laptops out on the shelves (mainly HP stuff) but unfortunately none were switched on...probably too early in the morning!...so I couldn't get an idea of how a working screen looks...but in the 'off' state it does look a terribly small screen compared to a 4:3 job and I really don't like it.

I know Dell still do the D530 4:3 machine so I may take a closer look at that...it doesn't have a graphics card but I can do without that in the knowledge that I'll be be happier using the old format. Either that or maybe I consider going for a 17" widescreen effort, but then I think I'll lose the portability side of things...oh deary me.

Well I'm gonna do a bit more delving now and make a decision.

Thanks for the input.

Colin

 

1440x900 is a great resolution for My XPS bro

 

You've got to see it on to really appreciate it. I don't think I could ever go back to 4:3 now. Since you seem to have subpar eyesight, like myself, I recommend the WSXGA.

 

Unfortunately all laptops look smaller in such a large environment such as a shop.

I'm currently using a 13.3" widescreen, at first I thought it was way too small but you soon get used to it and I now really like the size.

The switch from 4:3 will take a little getting used to since you lose quite a bit of height on an equivalent widescreen but everything, including websites look so much better in widescreen.

As for the resolution have a look here

If you know what resolution your current 4:3 is and if you like that, you can find the equivalent dpi for a 15.4" widescreen and buy that resolution knowing you'll be happy with how things look on it.

 

1440 x 900 is a good general resolution, that offers plenty of screen 'real estate'. If you can't stand text being the slightest bit small, though, you may want to look at 1280 x 800, but I don't really recommend that size on a 15" screen, as I feel that it doesn't fully capitalize the actual screen space.

 

I find 1280 x 800 works pretty well, especially as I do a lot of gaming in that resolution.
But I guess it comes down to personal choice, and I suppose if I was doing a lot of work in Office, I'd think about going 1440 x 900... Then again, I might not.

 

Bro which resolution will be best for lot of gaming on xps m1530????
1680x1050 OR 1440x900 OR 1280x800

 

1280x800 for sure. The 8600M GT in the M1530 won't be able to handle newer games too well on 1440x900 or 1680x1050.

 

1280 x 800.
Native resolution for gaming = better gaming.

 

I think 1440x900 is the best compromise. Sure, you may need to run games at 1280x800 for better performance, but that little interpolation is bearable. The higher res desktop is much better for general usage and it's not too high to cause eye strain.

 

WXGA+ (1440x900) is probably the best way to go if your eyesight is compromised.

That said, I'm on WSXGA+ right now and kinda want to try WUXGA just for kicks. I like being able to read two pages of a document side by side on a single screen.